ATLANTA — For generations, Georgia voters routinely rejected “Atlanta candidates” in favor of those from other parts of the state, but recent elections that have tilted toward North Georgia hopefuls may provide a new dynamic that will challenge Jack Kingston.

The Savannah congressman announced last week that he’s running for the Senate. He hopes to take the seat of fellow Republican Saxby Chambliss who signaled his retirement three months ago and set off a mad scramble in both parties.

Of the three announced candidates, Kingston is both the youngest at 58 and the one with the most congressional seniority, having served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1992. Phil Gingrey, a 70-year-old Augusta native, has represented Marietta in the House since 2002 and is older than the retiring Chambliss. Paul Broun, a 61-year-old Athens native who represents his hometown, has only been in the House since 2007.

Kingston was born in Bryan, Texas, but grew up in Athens where he went to high school with a likely candidate for the Democratic Senate nominee, Rep. John Barrow. At least Barrow began his law career in Athens where his father was a judge, and he was elected to the Athens-Clarke Commission before congressional redistricting prompted him to move his home to Savannah and then Augusta.

Kingston says he’s confident of his ties to voter-rich North Georgia.

“I’m an Athens boy,” he said in an interview with Morris News, adding that he had insurance clients in Atlanta two decades ago.

“Coming from a business background where I worked on a 100-percent commission basis, I’m used to hard work,” he said.

Chambliss won his Senate seat as a congressman from Moultrie in 2002 when he and gubernatorial hopeful Sonny Perdue of Bonaire focused their campaigns on South Georgia. Atlanta-based political observers were caught off guard by their success.

But since then, all of the statewide offices have been won by residents north of the gnat line as metro Atlanta continues to grow faster than the rest of the state. The one exception is Public Service Commissioner Doug Everett whose district requires a resident of South Georgia.

Kingston no doubt is pondering the campaign of Eric Johnson, a Savannah Republican who had risen to the highest post in the state Senate but whose quest for governor in 2010 fell short. Johnson, considered a candidate for Kingston’s congressional seat, came in third in the gubernatorial primary behind Karen Handel and Nathan Deal.

Deal, of course, has said he will run for re-election as governor. Handel is expected to announce her plans for the Senate on Wednesday.

Johnson, like Kingston, had a long record of service in office but little name recognition outside of his district. In a move many political operatives criticized, Johnson’s campaign burned precious resources on a television ad buy weeks before his rivals trying to boost his name ID in metro Atlanta only to see the slight bump quickly dissipate.

At a Fulton County GOP dinner March 25, attendees interviewed at random expressed interest in only two Senate candidates, local favorite Handel and Kingston. Handel because they knew her and Kingston because they didn’t.

Those interviewed fretted that Broun lacked polish and would alienate swing voters, and Gingrey simply didn’t excite them. So, they were curious about Kingston.

That curiosity gives the Savannah congressman a toehold into the metro area to introduce himself. Being unknown gives him the opportunity to define himself from scratch, if he can raise the funds to do it in the nation’s eighth-largest media market. Johnson did not excel at either fundraising or image building.

What will the congressman say about himself?

“I have a very conservative record and will not let any of my opponents outflank me on the right,” he said, adding that he grew up so conservative that he never left a room without turning off the lights and doesn’t run the water while brushing his teeth.

He’ll stress efforts to cut the federal budget as a member of the House Appropriations Committee and his support for the military as senior member on the Subcommittee on Defense Appropriations.

He’ll mention positive ratings from groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Taxpayer Union. And he’ll talk about how he’s repeatedly won re-election in a fairly moderate district and worked across the aisle with Democrats in Congress while remaining true to his conservative roots.

Whether he can close the sale won’t be known for 14 months.

Walter Jones is the Atlanta bureau chief for Morris News where he has been covering Georgia politics since 1998. Follow him on Twitter @MorrisNews and Facebook or contact him at walter.jones@morris.com or 404-589-8424.